Author: Lesley Goldberg, Kate Stanhope

March 17, 2016 8:00am PT by Lesley Goldberg , Kate Stanhope

 Getty Images

Sterling Sulieman will play Prince Escalus in the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ follow-up.

ABC’s Romeo and Juliet follow-up is rounding out its cast.

Pretty Little Liars alum Sterling Sulieman has landed a role in the network’s Shondaland pilot Still Star-Crossed, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Based on the book by Melinda Taub, the period drama picks up where Romeo and Juliet left off, charting the treachery, palace intrigue and ill-fated romances of the Montagues and Capulets in the wake of the young lovers’ tragic fate.

Sulieman is set to play Prince Escalus, the sovereign of Verona who has recently returned after spending seven years in the court of Venice. Intelligent, wise and idealistic, he is forced to make some very difficult decisions to protect the city he loves.

He joins a cast that includes Reign star Torrance Coombs, Home and Away‘s Wade Briggs and Medalion Rahimi.

Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal‘s Heather Mitchell will pen the script and exec produce alongside Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers. Michael Goldstein is also onboard as an executive producer. Michael Offer is set to direct the pilot.

Sulieman, whose credits also include 24 and The Vampire Diaries, is repped by APA and The Green Room.

Keep up with all the latest pickups, castings and eventual series orders with THR‘s handy guide to pilot season.

Pilot Season

March 03, 2016 1:22pm PT by Lesley Goldberg , Kate Stanhope

 Courtesy of ABC/Jack Rowand

Two weeks into her job as the network’s new entertainment president, Channing Dungey is doing something her predecessor, Paul Lee, never did: hand out early renewals.

Two weeks after being tapped as ABC entertainment president, Channing Dungey is doing something her predecessor, Paul Lee, never did: hand out early renewals. The former head of drama at ABC Studios on Thursday renewed several series — including veteran drama Once Upon a Time, third-year comedy The Goldbergs, sophomore comedy Fresh Off the Boat and rookie Quantico.

The renewals mark Dungey’s first official duties as head of the network and come after Lee historically waited until the Friday before upfronts in May to announce both returning shows as well as his new series pickups. Perhaps what’s more interesting is that amid a landscape of more vertically aligned networks and studios, Dungey’s early renewals include multiple series from outside studios including Sony Pictures Television (The Goldbergs) and 20th Century Fox Television (Fresh Off the Boat). 

More renewals are expected to come Thursday. We’ll update this post as more news becomes available. 

The Goldbergs
In its third season, the “1980-something” family comedy inspired by the life of showrunner Adam F. Goldberg has continued to find its groove. The Sony Pictures Television-produced comedy will return for its fourth season after it has helped solidify ABC’s Wednesday-night comedy block. This week, the network tested the comedy starring Wendi McLendon-Covey and Jeff Garlin in the 8 p.m. slot, where its Dirty Dancing-themed tribute episode tipped up week-over-week and bested The Middle in the time slot with an impressive 2.0 among the adults 18-49 demo. 

Once Upon a Time
The season-six pickup comes just days ahead of the fantasy series’ 100th episode — an important mark for syndication. The ABC Studios drama continues to draw stable ratings on Sundays, averaging 8 million viewers. The Disney-owned network continues to use Once as a way to feature strong brand integration, with many of its popular Disney characters coming to life on the multiple-universe drama. When speaking about the milestone episode with The Hollywood Reporter, creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis sound open to a long run for the synergistic series, possibly with different characters taking the lead at some point down the road. 

Fresh Off the Boat
Produced from outside studio 20th Century Fox Television, the third-season renewal for the 1990s Asian-American family comedy should be seen as a vote of confidence from Dungey. The executive has made diversity a top priority, and the renewal for the bubble comedy produced by an outside studio is a key sign that she’s open to allowing time for series to find their creative legs. The critical darling is currently part of ABC’s Tuesday night comedy block and has had an uphill battle with the low-rated Muppets revival as a lead-in. The series, picked up for a 13-episode sophomore season, received a back-nine pickup after the Nahnatchka Khan-produced comedy built on its freshman ratings.

Quantico
One of ABC’s few freshman drama hits, the series has also proven to be one of the biggest network breakouts of the season. In addition to ranking as Sunday’s top scripted series among adults 18-49, the FBI thriller enjoys impressive double-digit gains when DVR is factored in. (The show’s winter finale jumped 100 percent in live-plus-seven numbers.) Produced in-house and by Grey’s Anatomy executive producer Mark Gordon, Quantico has also been a point of pride for ABC in its continued to efforts to diversify with Bollywood veteran turned small-star screen Priyanka Chopra. 

Still to be determined are the fates of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, Castle, Modern Family, The Middle, Black-ish, Nashville, Galavant, Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter, American Crime and Last Man Standing, in addition to several unscripted series.

Once Upon a Time Fresh Off the Boat Quantico

January 19, 2016 6:51pm PT by Lesley Goldberg , Kate Stanhope

 Courtesy of Disney

The former co-host exited the syndicated series in December.

It’s one and done for Tyra Banks’ former series FABLife.

The syndicated talk show has been canceled and will not return for a second season, Disney-ABC Domestic Television announced late Tuesday. Original episodes will continue to be produced and aired for the remainder of the season.  

“We’re extremely proud of everyone involved with the show and would like to thank them for all of their contributions and tireless efforts,” said Janice Marinelli, president, Disney/ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution. “We are especially appreciative of our talented and dynamic co-hosts Chrissy Teigen, Joe Zee, Leah Ashley and Lauren Makk, and we would also like to extend a huge thanks to our station partners for all of their support.”

Banks, who exec produced and co-hosted the series, exited in December after two months on the job to focus on her cosmetics line. She was not replaced and severed her ties with the series last year. 

FABLife marked Banks’ highly anticipated return to daytime after The Tyra Banks Show went off the air in 2010. That series ran for five seasons and earned Banks two Daytime Emmy Awards for outstanding informative talk show.

While promoting FABLife at the Television Critics Association summer press tour last year, Banks said she had not anticipated a return to daytime and she noted that her life had become too hectic with a talk show and America’s Next Top Model running concurrently. 

“It just wasn’t a healthy thing for me,” she said at the time. “At that time in my career, I was probably the most successful, lucrative and [relevant] … and the most unhappy. And so when [The Tyra Banks Show] ended, I was like, ‘I’m done with talk. I’m going to hunker down, go to business school, and really focus on the business side of my career.’ “